Brain Advance Access published online on September 28, 2006
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awl265
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 Department of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, University Gabriele d'Annunzio and ITAB-Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, Fondazione Gabriele d'Annunzio, Chieti, Italy; Neuroimaging Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Human awareness of left space may be disrupted by cerebral lesions to the right hemisphere (hemispatial neglect). Current knowledge on the anatomical bases of this complex syndrome is based on the results of group studies that investigated primarily the best known aspect of the syndrome, which is visual neglect for near extrapersonal (or peripersonal) space. However, another component-neglect for personal space-is more often associated with, than double-dissociated from, extrapersonal neglect, especially, in chronic patients. The present investigation aimed at exploring the anatomical substrate of both extrapersonal and personal neglect by using different advanced methodological approaches to lesion-function correlation. Fifty-two right ischaemic patients were submitted to neuropsychological assessment and in-depth MRI evaluation. The borders of each patient's lesion were delimited onto its own high-resolution anatomical image and then submitted to an automated spatial normalization algorithm. Besides conventional lesion density plots and subtraction analysis, region-based statistical analyses were performed on percentage values of the lesioned tissue also using a new parcellation of the white matter (WM). Data were finally submitted to voxelwise statistical analysis using a recently proposed method (voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping). Results converged in showing that awareness of extrapersonal space is based on the integrity of a circuit of right frontal (ventral premotor cortex and middle frontal gyrus) and superior temporal regions, whereas awareness of personal space is rooted in right inferior parietal regions (supramarginal gyrus, post-central gyrus and especially the WM medial to them). Common but less crucial regions for both neglect sub-types were located in the temporo-peri-Sylvian cortex. We suggest that extrapersonal space awareness critically involves a ventral circuit recently described for the exogenous allocation and reorienting of attention in space. Disruption of personal space awareness, instead, seems to be due to a functional disconnection between regions important for coding proprioceptive and somatosensory inputs, and regions coding more abstract egocentric representations of the body in space. In conclusion, present data strongly support a segregation of personal and extrapersonal spatial awareness in humans, both from a functional and an anatomical point of view.
Received February 21, 2006
Revised August 7, 2006
Accepted August 8, 2006
Article
Neural bases of personal and extrapersonal neglect in humans
Giorgia Committeri 1 *, Sabrina Pitzalis 2, Gaspare Galati 3, Fabiana Patria 4, Gina Pelle 5, Umberto Sabatini 4, Alessandro Castriota-Scanderbeg 6, Laura Piccardi 7, Cecilia Guariglia 7, and Luigi Pizzamiglio 7
2 Neuroimaging Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; Laboratory of Neuropsychology, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
3 Department of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, University Gabriele d'Annunzio and ITAB-Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, Fondazione Gabriele d'Annunzio, Chieti, Italy; Neuroimaging Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; Laboratory of Neuropsychology, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
4 Neuroimaging Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
5 Department of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, University Gabriele d'Annunzio and ITAB-Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, Fondazione Gabriele d'Annunzio, Chieti, Italy
6 Ars Radiologica, Lecce, Italy
7 Laboratory of Neuropsychology, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy
Giorgia Committeri, E-mail: gcommitteri{at}unich.it
Abstract 
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  H.-O. Karnath, C. Rorden, and L. F. Ticini Damage to White Matter Fiber Tracts in Acute Spatial Neglect Cereb Cortex, October 1, 2009; 19(10): 2331 - 2337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Bohlhalter, N. Hattori, L. Wheaton, E. Fridman, E. A. Shamim, G. Garraux, and M. Hallett Gesture Subtype-Dependent Left Lateralization of Praxis Planning: An Event-Related fMRI Study Cereb Cortex, June 1, 2009; 19(6): 1256 - 1262. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. M. Umarova, D. Saur, S. Schnell, C. P. Kaller, M.-S. Vry, V. Glauche, M. Rijntjes, J. Hennig, V. Kiselev, and C. Weiller Structural Connectivity for Visuospatial Attention: Significance of Ventral Pathways Cereb Cortex, April 30, 2009; (2009) bhp086v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. Fox Experience-dependent plasticity mechanisms for neural rehabilitation in somatosensory cortex Phil Trans R Soc B, February 12, 2009; 364(1515): 369 - 381. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
N. Hagura, Y. Oouchida, Y. Aramaki, T. Okada, M. Matsumura, N. Sadato, and E. Naito Visuokinesthetic Perception of Hand Movement is Mediated by Cerebro-Cerebellar Interaction between the Left Cerebellum and Right Parietal Cortex Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2009; 19(1): 176 - 186. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Labate, A. Cerasa, A. Gambardella, U. Aguglia, and A. Quattrone Hippocampal and thalamic atrophy in mild temporal lobe epilepsy: A VBM study Neurology, September 30, 2008; 71(14): 1094 - 1101. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M Urbanski, M Thiebaut de Schotten, S Rodrigo, M Catani, C Oppenheim, E Touze, S Chokron, J-F Meder, R Levy, B Dubois, et al. Brain networks of spatial awareness: evidence from diffusion tensor imaging tractography J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry, May 1, 2008; 79(5): 598 - 601. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 F. Di Russo, T. Aprile, G. Spitoni, and D. Spinelli Impaired visual processing of contralesional stimuli in neglect patients: a visual-evoked potential study Brain, March 1, 2008; 131(3): 842 - 854. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Bartolomeo, M. Thiebaut de Schotten, and F. Doricchi Left Unilateral Neglect as a Disconnection Syndrome Cereb Cortex, November 1, 2007; 17(11): 2479 - 2490. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|